Covid jab could ‘cure’ long-Covid as third of sufferers see symptoms disappear
CORONAVIRUS vaccines could "cure" people suffering with long-Covid as over a third of sufferers have seen their symptoms disappear after having the jab, new figures have revealed.
New data offers hope to hundreds of thousands of people who have been battling debilitating symptoms months after being diagnosed with Covid-19.
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A poll conducted by the Survivor Corps Facebook group found that 39 per cent of long haulers who have had a vaccine witnessed mild to full resolution of their lingering symptoms.
So far in the UK over 32.9 million people have received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, with over 10.1 million now having had a second.
Many people suffering from long-Covid had been concerned that their symptoms would worsen after the vaccine.
Long-Covid is a term that describes a range of debilitating symptoms that people suffer months after first having developed Covid-19.
Just last month it was reported that the vaccines ease the symptoms for people who are suffering with long-Covid.
Dr David Strain, a clinical senior lecturer at the University of Exeter who runs long Covid clinics and is a member of the NHS taskforce on the condition, told: “We are getting people reporting improvements, and it’s quite widespread, about half of the people we are asking.
"I was having these excruciating pains in my back and in my lungs."
What is long-Covid?
At the start of 2020 Covid-19 was new and unknown to most of the world and experts say there is still much that needs to be understood about the virus.
Long-Covid is a term that describes people whose symptoms go on for longer than the two-week symptom period officially recognised by WHO.
The NHS has now opened over 60 clinics to help people who are suffering with the condition.
The All Party Parliamentary Group on coronavirus previously listed the 16 symptoms that long haulers can suffer from.
They are:
- High temperature
- Hair loss
- Diarrhoea
- Exhaustion
- Chest pain
- Insomnia
- Hallucinations
- Covid toes
- Chills
- Disorientation
- Cognitive problems
- Breathing issues
- Muscle or body aches
- Vomiting
- A heart rate of more than 100 beats a minute (Tachycardia)
- Issues with your heart rate or its rhythm (Arrhythmia)
She added that her extreme episodes of fatigue had also now stopped.
One expert said that the reason some long-Covid sufferers could be getting respite from their ongoing symptoms is due to the fact that some pieces of the virus could "hide in the body".
Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine said vaccines are able to deploy robust antibody and T-cell responses.
These, she explains, can help clear away any parts of the virus that have been lingering in the body.
Another explanation is that the vaccine can help “reset” the immune system, which is thought to be damaged from Covid and unable to return to normal.
Professor Ian Hall, who runs a long Covid clinic in Nottingham, says it's possible that being vaccinated gives some people a “psychological boost” that causes them to feel better - a bit like the “placebo effect”.
Up to one in ten people who have tested positive have Covid symptoms 12 weeks later, according to the Office for National Statistics.
It goes up to one in five when considering those who are still sick five weeks after infection.
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Long Covid affects not only those who were in hospital with severe disease, but those who had only a mild infection.
People who were relatively fit, healthy and young when they caught the coronavirus are still suffering the effects months later.